This blog hopes to focus on the "life" side of the training-life balance that anyone training for triathlon will know can be difficult to juggle. No one really cares what interval set I ran today and how high my heart rate got so I won't try and impress anyone with those stats. Stats make the world go round though so for those who are interested I will have Garmin data available for each training session, most stats i throw around on a saturday night are made up, sadly thats not an option with the garmin so you can be assured at least that aspect of this blog will be honest.

NoRestDays Day 15 - Speak before you think

by malcolmclelandOct 16th 2012

It's not often you'll catch me out with nothing to say, smartass, speak before you think comments are something I never want to grow out of. The consequences of running off at the mouth can be widely varied, at school you could end up being the hero of the class with everyone in fits of laughter, or you could slightly overstep the mark and get rubbish duty for a week. Needless to say you normally only overstep the mark once, especially in the smaller centres where rubbish duty is a non preferred retaliation. Knowing when to bite your tongue is something learnt through experience, similar comments can be made of training and racing. Listening to your body and knowing when to push yourself that little bit harder can be the difference between a great race and a pulled hamstring.

Due to a general lack of imagination I decided to jump no the bike again today and cruise around the bays for a couple of hours. The ride was more of a recovery ride so I didn¬'t try to push the pace to much. Nearly 60km under the belt for a gentle spin out wasn¬'t a bad achievement though and the sound of my grumbling stomach told me it was time to pull the pin and go home for something to eat.

Now I realise I said it was a gentle recovery ride above, I should also note that there were periods of were I pushed the pace. Road cycling is a sport a lot of people turn to in their mid life crisis. They go out and spend way too much money on bikes, clothing and equipment ensuring they look the part (fake it till you make it). I¬'ve got no problem with this at all, what I do have a problem with is when you pass one of these show ponies and they then proceed to sit on your tail and draft. This happened a couple of times while I was out riding on Monday, so rather than proceed at my recovery pace I slowly wound it up until my annoying shadow could not hold on and dropped off the back. Cycling may be a sociable sport but it doesn¬'t mean anyone gets a free ride.